Today we splurged in the town of La Fortuna and got the $30 hotel room with a view of the Arenal volcano. It was recommended to us by a friend of Fred Holts. It was indeed a good room with a good view. However, little did we know that you have to travel to the other side (west side) of the volcano to see the lava spewing out of it. We paid big bucks to see the lava, but at least we got a nice volcano view and a comfortable room. I went against my better half and ran the luxurious air conditioning unit almost all night long. We did drive to the other side of the volcano, about 10 miles down a paved road and another 3-4 down an unpaved but passable dirt road. The view of the lava spewing forth from the volcano was pretty spectacular. It wasn’t a constant stream of lava, but was instead a few fiery rocks that would shoot out from time to time and then tumble down the mountain at great speed. The tumbling lava would crash against rocks in its pathway, and then shoot off chunks of fiery explosions like a big fourth of July fireworks show. People are restricted from getting too close to the mountain because they would be crushed/burned by the somersaulting lava rolling down the mountain. We hung out with about 50 people at the lookout point, and I took several long-exposure pictures. While there, we met a couple from Argentina who are travelling with their 2 year old son. The husband takes pictures and then prints and sells them as postcards in souvenir shops to help fund their travels. The lava show was pretty spectacular, and from time to time you could hear the deep rumbling that the explosions and tumbling lava-rocks would generate.

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